Made Especially For You

PSC #21: Round Robin Die Cut Week

2012-02-28T11:00:00.004-06:00

We have an out-of-the-ordinary challenge this week for you at The Perfect Sentiment! It's a fifth Wednesday, which means the challenge is not one we regularly adhere to since there aren't many fifth Wednesdays during the year.

This week's challenge is to create a card using die cuts! The sentiment is your choice and and must be on the front of the card.

For this challenge, the design team did a round robin with die cuts. My wonderful die cut donator sent me some lovely spring images that I couldn't wait to play with. :) The three flowers on the bottom of my card were the cuts I chose to use.

The Perfect Sentiments team is sponsoring this week's die cut challenge with a $5 Amazon gift card! One randomly chosen winner will be the lucky recipient of this generous gift and 'The Perfect 3' chosen by the design team will receive a badge to display on their blogs.

Check out the other design team members' cards for some more inspiration!

Sami

Jan

Abby

Theresa

Jessica

Maggie

Sam

Have a lovely rest of your week!

Ashley

MEFY Stitching Challenge!

2012-02-27T00:00:00.002-06:00

Happy Monday! It's technique week here at Made Especially For You - probably one of my favorite challenges of the month. I love trying out new techniques that I don't normally use on my cards.

This week's challenge is to create a card using the technique of stitching. It can be faux or real, whatever you feel comfortable with!

Our awesome sponsor this week, The Cutting Cafe, asked the design team to use some of their St. Patrick's Day digis on our cards. For my card, I actually incorporated two of them, one being the clover flower pot, and the second being the sentiment on the flower pot itself.

This is probably one of the quickest cards I've ever made, and also probably the closest card I've ever made that resembles a greeting card you would purchase at a store, just because it's so basic. and un-embellished. The image was colored with your everyday colored pencils.

Close-up of the faux stitching and the sentiment. Sorry it's so hard to read! It says 'Happy St. Patrick's Day,' and then 'Just for you...' underneath the shamrock.

The Cutting Cafe will allow the winner to choose three sets of digital images from their store! To enter the challenge, all you have to do is create a card using the technique of stitching (faux or real) and submit it to the linky gadget on the 'Weekly Challenge' page here on my blog. You also have a chance of being in the 'Top 3' and receiving a special badge to display on your blog. :) We'd love for you to play along with us!

March is a HUGE month for Made Especially For You. Not only are the weekly challenges continuing, but there will also be a Cricut cartridge giveaway, a joint design team blog hop, AND two new features - Thursday Craft 'n Chat and Do You Speak Cricut Saturdays. It all begins on March 1st! Make sure to check back then for more information about the exciting things happening at Made Especially For You!

Have a fabulous day!

Ashley

Gettin' Crafty With Cricut Cuts Blog Hop - Day 2

2012-02-25T23:00:00.011-06:00

Welcome to Gettin' Crafty with Cricut Blog hop. This blog hop is dedicated to making a project using your cricut and the cuts you can make from a cartridge. This should be a lot of fun! :)

With so many talented ladies and such a selection of Cricut cartridges, there will be a wide range of projects for you to enjoy. There were no rules, stipulations, or no holds barred to create and create we did!

If you just happened to be visiting my blog today, I greatly appreciate that but would love for you to start at the beginning of our hop so, that you don't miss a single project with Lisa. If you have arrived from Lori's blog, then you are on the right cut of the path!

For my project today, I have created a Halloween card using the Mini Monsters cartridge. I know, I know, Halloween is over six months away. But, I haven't really had a chance to play with this cart since I got it for Christmas and thought this would be the perfect opportunity to see what it has to offer. :)

Your next stop along the cutting path is Carol. Thanks for joining us in our two-day hop!

If you get lost along the way, here is the entire hop so that you won't miss a single project:

Lisa - http://handmadewithlove-lisa.blogspot.com/
Michele - http://chelescrafts.blogspot.com/
Lucy - http://love2createitall.blogspot.com/
Anita - http://anitaandbugs.blogspot.com/
Evila - http://frenchconnectiondesigns.blogspot.com/
Lori - http://scrappinmystressaway.blogspot.com/
Ashley - http://especiallymade.blogspot.com/ <---- You Are Here
Carol H. - http://huffandpuffscrap.blogspot.com/
Lynne - http://slasewcraftiness.blogspot.com/

Gettin' Crafty with Cricut Cuts Blog Hop - Day 1

2012-02-24T23:00:00.006-06:00

Welcome to Gettin' Crafty with Cricut Blog hop. This blog hop is dedicated to making a project using your cricut and the cuts you can make from a cartridge. This should be a lot of fun! :)

With so many talented ladies and such a selection of Cricut cartridges, there will be a wide range of projects for you to enjoy. There were no rules, stipulations, or no holds barred to create and create we did!

If you just happened to be visiting my blog today, I greatly appreciate that but would love for you to start at the beginning of our hop so, that you don't miss a single project with Lisa. If you have arrived from Lori's blog, then you are on the right cut of the path!

For my project today, I have created a simple birthday card using the Stretch Your Imagination cartridge. A coworker of mine has a birthday coming up, and just recently we were talking about spring story time ideas (I work at a library) and she mentioned how much she loves doing story times about baby chicks. As soon as I saw this adorable singing chick on the Stretch Your Imagination card, I knew it would be the perfect cut to use!

Your next stop along the cutting path is Carol. Remember, this is a two day hop so be sure to stop back tomorrow for more creativity!

If you get lost along the way, here is the entire hop so that you won't miss a single project:

Lisa - http://handmadewithlove-lisa.blogspot.com/
Michele - http://chelescrafts.blogspot.com/
Lucy - http://love2createitall.blogspot.com/
Anita - http://anitaandbugs.blogspot.com/
Evila - http://frenchconnectiondesigns.blogspot.com/
Lori - http://scrappinmystressaway.blogspot.com/
Ashley - http://especiallymade.blogspot.com/ <---- You Are Here
Carol H. - http://huffandpuffscrap.blogspot.com/
Lynne - http://slasewcraftiness.blogspot.com/

PSC #20: Get Well Sketch

2012-02-21T23:00:00.046-06:00

It's Wednesday, which means... time for another weekly challenge over at The Perfect Sentiment!

The Challenge: Create a sentiment with a sentiment of "get well." Sentiment must be on the front of the card.

The Twist: Use the provided sketch as inspiration.

And here's my take on this lovely sketch:

The sentiment is handwritten (I felt this added a more personal touch since it is a 'get well' card) and I paper-pierced the blue cardstock to make for a nice accent. After last week's paper-piercing challenge, I knew it was a technique I wanted to start using more often! :)

The randomly chosen winner of this week's challenge at The Perfect Sentiment will receive one free digi from Pattie's Creations. Don't forget, there's also a chance to be in 'The Perfect 3,' as well!

Now head on over to the other DT members' blogs to see some inspiration so you can enter the challenge! :)

Sami

Jan

Abby

Theresa

Jessica

Maggie

Sam

And don't forget to check out the weekly challenge here at Made Especially For You! Create a card featuring three papers for a chance to win a 2 piece bundle of ribbon from 3 Girl Jam.

Have a great day!

Ashley

MEFY Challenge: Three Papers

2012-02-20T00:00:00.001-06:00

It's 'especially three' week here at Made Especially For You. This week's challenge is to create a card featuring three papers. No more, no less! :) Stop by the 'Weekly Challenge' page to submit your three paper card and also get some inspiration from the design team. :)

It seems I've lost my creative mojo lately. :( I just can't seem to make anything that I'm really pleased with. I felt I was on a roll there for a while and now its come to a halt. I'm not sure if it's because I have a lot on my plate and cardmaking sometimes seems like another thing on my to-do list, or if I'm just going through one of those dry spells. Anyways, here's my card for this week's challenge:

Our sponsor this week is 3 Girl Jam, and as you may noticed many of the DT members and I used some of their awesome crinkle ribbon on our cards. I tried to do something a little different than mine other than just making an ordinary bow, so I used it as a border instead. I really liked it at first, and now, not so much. I used black cardstock, white cardstock, and the patterned paper for my three papers.

3 Girl Jam will be giving the winner of this week's challenge a 2 piece bundle of crinkle ribbon! To enter the challenge, all you have to do is create a card featuring three papers and submit it to the linky gadget on the 'Weekly Challenge' page here on my blog. You also have a chance of being in the 'Top 3' and receiving a special badge to display on your blog. :) We'd love for you to play along with us!

I also have some exciting news to share with you! Starting in March, two new features will be added to Made Especially For You:

- Every Thursday will be 'Thursday Craft 'n Chat,' where a member of the design team will share a different crafty tip and/or technique. Ultimately, I would also like to open the Craft 'n Chat to other bloggers as well, so they can share their crafty tips with everyone.

- Every Saturday will be 'Do You Speak Cricut Saturday,' where a member of the design team will share a Cricut cartridge review and a project created with that cartridge. The goal of this is to help prospective Cartridge-buyers take a closer look at cartridges before purchasing them to see if it's something they are going to use often and enjoy using. There aren't many thorough cartridge reviews out there, and I know it's something I'd love to look into before purchasing a cartridge.

Also, stay tuned for more information about my March Cricut cartridge giveaway!

Thanks for reading!

Ashley

PSC #19: Paper-Pierced Holidays & Seasons

2012-02-14T23:00:00.003-06:00

Happy Wednesday, everyone! I'm back with another card for the weekly challenge over at The Perfect Sentiment. This week's challenge is a fun one! :)

The Challenge: Create a card with a sentiment appropriate for any season or holiday (the sentiment must be on the front of the card.

The Twist: Use the technique of paper-piercing on your card.

I had never used the technique of paper-piercing before this challenge, so I was a little nervous at first. Once I found a really cute and simple template, I realized how easy it was! AND I was able to use household items (a push pin and the back of a mousepad) instead of having to go out and buy a paper-piercing tool, so that made me a very happy girl. :)

Since our sponsor this week is Bugaboo Digi Stamps, the other design team ladies and I all used one of their images on each of our cards. I chose this super adorable St. Patrick's Day turtle - I couldn't pass him up! :)

The sentiment is computer-generated (I have yet to purchase any St. Patrick's Day stamps), and the paper is from Recollections. As soon as I saw it I knew it would make a great St. Patty's Day card! I added the pearls in the corners for an added touch. The digital stamp is colored with just your basic colored pencils.

Bugaboo Digi Stamps will be giving away seven free digis (or the equivalent of $21) to the randomly chosen winner of this week's challenge. All challenge participants also have the potential to be in the 'Perfect 3,' chosen by the design team.

Check out the creations of the other design team members for more inspiration for this week's challenge:

Have a great rest of your week! :)

Ashley

Made Especially For You Sketch Challenge

2012-02-13T00:00:00.000-06:00

It's sketch week here at Made Especially For You! Thanks to our awesome sketch designer, Beckie, for designing the sketches each month. :)

Here's this week's simple sketch:

And here's my take on it (using an image from our sponsor, Pattie's Creations)

It's hard to tell in the picture, but the ribbon in the stamp is actually covered in silver glitter to match the glitter from the paper. Sorry my camera didn't capture it!

To enter the sketch challenge, all you have to do is create a card inspired by the sketch. The sketch should be visible in the layout of your card. Then, post the card on your blog and link it up to the challenge using the linky gadget at the bottom of the 'Weekly Challenge' page. It's that easy! :)

The winner will receive their choice of three images from our wonderful sponsor, Pattie's Creations.

Every challenge submission is also eligible to be in the 'Top 3,' chosen by the design team. The Top 3 submissions will receive a badge to display on their blog. :) The challenge runs through the evening of Sunday February 19th, we would love for you to play along with us! :)

Ashley

Dying to become a 'Pinner?' Here's a Pinterest Tutorial!

2012-02-08T12:11:00.000-06:00

Hi everybody! Today I'd like to share with you one of my new favorite things to do - 'pinning.' For those of you who don't know what Pinterest is, here's the definition from their website:

"Pinterest lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favorite recipes.

Best of all, you can browse pinboards created by other people. Browsing pinboards is a fun way to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests."

Basically, once you set up an account you create Boards to which you later post pictures/links to, or re-pin a picture of someone else's that you like. People post pictures from all over the web (or upload their own) onto the appropriate boards. These posts are called 'pins.' You can also re-pin something that another person has pinned, whether you follow them or not.

Every board is given a category, chosen by the user when the board is first created. All of my boards are categorized as DIY & Crafts. Up at the top of the page there is a drop down menu for all the categories you can view. Click on 'Everything' and you'll see this:

If for instance, if you clicked on the DIY & Crafts page, all the pins that are labeled on boards categorized as DIY & Crafts will appear, with the newest pins being shown first. If you see an idea you like, for example, a craft you might want to make, you can re-pin it onto one of your boards.

If you hover your mouse cursor over the pin, you can see you have the option to Re-pin, Like, or Comment. If you select 'Repin' you will have the option to Pin it to any of your boards and write a comment about it.

I have chosen to re-pin this picture to my 'Other Craft Ideas' board.

If you view the pin on your actual board, you'll see something that looks like this. Up in the top right-hand corner is the link to where this picture came from (craftgawker.com). A lot of times someone will pin a picture of a craft, but to see the actual tutorial of how to make it, you'll have to view the pin on your board so you can go to the original link.

As for following other Pinterest pages, you can choose to follow the entire person's Pinterest account (all of their boards) or if you just like one or two of their boards, you can choose to only follow those. For example, I have 65 people following my entire Pinterest, but then I have 83 people only following my 'Color Combos' board.

So, do you want to become a 'Pinner?' Unfortunately, since Pinterest is still in it's beginning phases, you can't just set up an account, you'll be put on a wait list instead. Fortunately, I have a Pinterest and can invite friends!

If you would like create a Pinterest account, send me an email at especiallymadeblog@gmail.com and I'll send you an invite!

To get started after your account has been set up, take a look at the top right-hand corner of your screen.

If you click on 'Add' you can add a pin, upload a pin, or create a board. If you click on 'About' you can add a 'Pin It' button for your bookmark bar on your Internet browser and also view the general 'Help' page. Clicking on your name will give you the options to Find People, Invite Friends, and view your Boards, Pins, and Likes.

I hope this tutorial was helpful, I tried to explain everything as best as I could. If you have any questions about anything I didn't cover in the tutorial, please don't hesitate to ask! Once you play around with it for a little bit, it's really easy to figure everything out. It becomes VERY addicting!

If you already have a Pinterest and would like to follow me, click on the 'Follow Me on Pinterest' button on the top left-hand side of my sidebar. I'll follow you back! :)

Stay tuned for another post about all of my crafty boards on Pinterest! Thanks for reading! :)

Ashley

PSC #18: Inspired with Love

2012-02-07T23:00:00.034-06:00

It's photo inspiration week over at The Perfect Sentiment! This challenge is by far one of my favorites. I love looking at the provided photo and seeing what jumps out first for what I should include on the card. It's so fun to see everyone else's takes on the photo, too! :)

The Challenge: Create a card with a sentiment that lets someone know you "love them." The sentiment must be on the front of the card, and this does not have to be for Valentine's Day.

The Twist: Use the following photo as inspiration for the design of your card. Be sure to include in your blog post where you found inspiration.

There are so many aspects of this picture to be inspired by! The colors, the plants, the tablecloth, the items on the table... I didn't know where to begin! One thing I did know was I wanted to use the pink/blue/green color combo - I had the perfect paper to use.

As you can tell, I pulled as much of the colors from the photo as I could. The pink flower represents the flowers up in the corner of the picture and the embossed accent on the side of the card was supposed to represent the other plants in the picture. The sentiment is handwritten.

Shelly's Images will be giving away one image of the winner's choice, and don't forget, there's always the opportunity to be in the 'Perfect Three!'

And don't forget to stop by the blogs of the other Perfect Sentiment DT members for some more inspiration!

Thanks for reading, have a great rest of your day! :)

Ashley

Valentine's Card with A Tag

2012-02-06T00:00:00.001-06:00

Made Especially For You is back with its theme of the month challenge! This month's theme is none other than the lovely Valentine's Day. The challenge:

Create a Valentine's Day card featuring a tag.

Here's what I came up with:

You can click here to enter the challenge as well as receive some inspiration from the design team. Our sponsor this week is the wonderful Liz from Decade of Scrap, and she will be giving away up to three sets of digital Valentine's Day sentiments to the winner!

By submitting a card to the challenge, you are not only eligible to be randomly chosen as the winner of the sponsor's prize, but you also have the opportunity to be in the 'top three' as well. We would love to have you play along with us! :)

Ashley

PSC #17: Missing A Button

2012-02-01T00:00:00.004-06:00

Hi everyone! I'm so excited to announce today that I am now a member of The Perfect Sentiment design team! :) I was a guest designer for the month of January and couldn't of been more thrilled when I was given the option to stay on as a regular member. I love their challenges!

The Challenge: Create a card with a sentiment of "missing you"

The Twist: Use a button/buttons on your card

Buttons have become one of my favorite embellishments to use, so I was really excited about making a card for this challenge. Here's what I came up with:

The paper is from the 'All Dressed Up' stack by DCWV and the layout of the card is based off an old Mojo Monday sketch, which you can view here.

We're just playing for fun this week - check out the fabulous creations by the other designers for some more inspiration:

Thanks for stopping by! Check back each Wednesday for another Perfect Sentiment challenge creation.

Ashley

Meet The New DT Members! :)

2012-01-31T10:05:00.005-06:00

Wow! I can't believe it's already been three months since I started my own DT and hosting weekly challenges. Time has just flown by. As the end of the three-month design team rolled around, I was sad to hear some of the members were leaving due to other personal and crafty commitments. I thoroughly enjoyed having them on the team and will definitely see them around here in blogland. :)

I'm pleased to announce that Made Especially For You has six new members joining the team. They are a fantastic group of talented and enthusiastic ladies that I'm so looking forward to working with. :) Take a moment to check out their blogs and say hi! :)

Gabrielle - Gaby's Papery

Georgiana - Carson's Creations

Jessica - Craftin' and Stampin'

Michelle - Cards by Mee Chelle

Pam - Scrappin Fab Pam

Tabitha - Zippity-Do-Dah

Please also give a warm welcome to the returning members of the team:

Abby - Scrappin Abby

Beckie - Just B Creative Crazy

Sponsor Coordinator & Sketch Designer

Becky - Becky's Sweet Creations

Eileen - As The Cricut Cuts...

Their information can always be found on the 'Design Team' page here on the blog. Their first challenge is this upcoming Sunday February 5th, stop by to see their wonderful creations!

Ashley

First Sketch Challenge!

2012-01-30T00:00:00.040-06:00

This week is Made Especially For You's first-ever sketch challenge! Thanks to our new sketch designer, Beckie, for creating the sketch for this week! :) Starting in February, there will be a sketch challenge the second week of each month.

Isn't it super cute?! :) The hearts definitely caught my eye, right away I knew I had to make a Valentine's Day card, even though the hearts could definitely be substituted with something else. Here's my take on this lovely sketch:

What I Used To Make The Card:

- Patterned 'love' paper with red, pink, white and black cardstock

- Cuttlebug with 'D'vine Swirl' embossing folder

- Foam hearts

- White and pink brads

- 'Pink lemonade' twine

- 'Love' sentiment in black ink

The design team and I would love if you participated in this week's sketch challenge! The winner will receive their choice of 3 digital images from our wonderful sponsor, K 'n K Designs.

Thanks for reading!

Ashley

Liebster Blog Award

2012-01-28T10:58:00.000-06:00

I am so honored to accept the Liebster Blog Award from a great friend of mine, Becky from Becky's Sweet Creations. I designed on Becky's DT for a while and now she designs on mine. :) Thanks so much, Becky! :)

"The origins of the Liebster Blog award are somewhat unclear but the general consensus is that it originated in Germany, Liebster meaning favorite or dearest, to showcase bloggers with fewer than 200 followers. Upon accepting the award the recipient must then pass it on to five more blogs of note."

Here are the rules:

1- Choose FIVE up and coming blogs to award the Liebster to. Blogs must have less than 200 followers.

2- Show your thanks to the blogger who gave you the award by linking back to them.

3-Post the award on your blog. List the bloggers you gave the award to with links to their sites

I am passing this award on to the following five wonderful ladies and their blogs:

Pam - Scrappin Fab Pam

Michelle - Cards by Mee Chelle

Jessica - Craftin' and Stampin'

Gabrielle - Gaby's Papery

Tabitha - Zippity-Do-Dah

Thanks again, Becky! It's been a while since I've received a blog award. :) I'll be adding this award to my 'Blog Awards' page here on my blog.

Ashley

PSC #16: Friendship Sketch

2012-01-25T00:00:00.061-06:00

It's all about friendship this week at The Perfect Sentiment! This is my last week as a guest designer and I'm grateful for the new friends I've made during this past month. :) The challenge is to create a friendship inspired by the following sketch:

This sketch is for a circle card. If you do not have the ability to create a circle card then create a square card and include the circles as layers.

I had a lot of fun using this sketch as inspiration for my card! Here's what I came up with:

This week's sponsor is Pattie's Creations, and she will be giving away the winner's choice of one digital image.

For more inspiration for this week's challenge, check out the creations of the other designers:

Guest Designers:

You can also create a friendship card (or kill two birds with one stone and use the same one, like I did) to enter my blog's friendship card challenge this week. Thanks so much for stopping by! :)

Ashley

PSC #15: Resist-Embossed Birthday

2012-01-18T00:00:00.000-06:00

The challenge this week over at The Perfect Sentiment is to create a birthday card using the resist embossing technique. This is a new technique for me, seeing as the only embossing I usually use is dry embossing with my Cuttlebug. I enlisted the help of my good crafty friend Tammy to help me out. :) Thanks, Tammy!

My mom's birthday is coming up and I decided to make this card for her. I wanted to use her two favorite colors, purple and orange, but didn't have any papers that looked good together. So, I used the multi-colored paper from The Birthday Extravaganza mat stack by The Paper Studio and emphasized the resist-embossed purple sentiment and the orange balloons.

The awesome sponsor this week is My Little Somethings, and they will be giving away a grab bag of crafting supplies at a minimum of $15! This giveaway is limited to US participants, but in the event a non-US resident wins, they will be awarded with digital images, instead.

Thanks for reading! Make sure to stop by The Perfect Sentiment to enter the challenge and also view the fantastic creations of the other designers and guest designers! Happy Wednesday! :)

Ashley

Three Ribbon Challenge Card & A Blog Candy Winner

2012-01-16T00:00:00.000-06:00

Happy Monday, everyone! I'm excited to share with you the card I made for this week's challenge here at Made Especially For You - create a card featuring three ribbons. Every third week of the month will be a challenge to create something using three of a certain item. The sponsor this week is the wonderful Pattie from Pattie's Creations, and she will be giving away the winner's choice of three images from her site. I used one of her adorable images in my card I made for the challenge:

I'm very new to using digital stamps, so please bear with me as I know my coloring isn't spectacular. They're really fun to color, though, and I look forward to experimenting with them more in the future, and hope to one day add some Copics to my collection.

I would also like to announce the winner from the Based On A Book blog hop I participated in this past weekend. The randomly chosen winner of my blog candy is...

#1 Carri said: "I can see why you love this one! It is so adorable! Pooh is just too cute!"

Thanks for reading! Make sure to check out this week's challenge (and design team call) if you haven't already! :)

Ashley

Based On A Book Blog Hop

2012-01-14T00:00:00.015-06:00

***Interested in becoming part of the Made Especially For You design team? Click here***

Welcome to the Based On A Book Blog Hop!

Thanks so much for joining us! This hop is all about books, along the way you'll see many book-inspired projects and have the chance to win some blog candy! If you've come from Amy Jo's blog, then you're in the right place. :) If you've just come across the hop and would like to start from the beginning, please visit Ashley's blog.

I'm so excited to be participating in this hop because I have always loved to read and currently work at a library, so this was definitely a hop I knew I needed to sign up for. I have so many favorite books, and had a hard time choosing which one would be the best inspiration for a card. Part of my job is helping out in the children's department of the library, and I thought it would be fun to make a card based off a children's book. It just so happens that I got the Winnie the Pooh Font cartridge for Christmas, and as soon as I saw it I knew a Winnie the Pooh card was going to be my project for this hop.

I'm absolutely in love with this card - I'm so happy with the way it turned out! The quote is an actual quote from the book (I plan on decorating the inside later using another quote). Pooh was cut at 3" and the pot of honest was cut at 1.5", both images are from the Pooh Font cartridge.

And now for the fun part of the hop... blog candy! I'll be giving away the following crafty goodies:

Sorry about the glare!

- 1 package of oranges flowers from Studio G

- 1 set of clear stamps with gems by Studio G

- 1 package of green rhinestones

- 1 spool of glittery purple ribbon

Entering to win is easy! Here's what you have to do:
1.) Become a follower (if you aren't already)
2.) Leave a comment on this post with your contact information
3.) 'Like' the Made Especially For You Facebook page

The winner will be announced on Monday January 16th, entries should be submitted no later than Sunday at midnight US Central Time.

Thanks so much for hopping along with us! Now hop on over to Charity's blog to see another book-inspired project. :)

PSC #14: Photo-Inspired Sympathy

2012-01-11T00:00:00.003-06:00

I'm back again with another guest designer card for The Perfect Sentiment. :) The challenge this week is to create a sympathy card based off the following photo:

I absolutely love doing these photo inspiration sketches. They're so much fun! Here's my take on the sketch:

The card is really simple, I didn't want to do anything too over-the-top for a sympathy card. Plus, the picture is very calm and tranquil, and I wanted to keep the card that way, too, rather than making it busy. The white paper flowers are handmade, and the blue accent piece is embossed with the D'vine Swirl embossing folder.

As you can obviously tell, I used the colors in the photo on my card. I tried to use the same amount of each color as there is in the photo (a lot of white, a decent amount of turquoise, and a touch of black). I also used the shape of the pond for the bottom half of the card and embossed it to give it the effect of the gentle ripples.

Our awesome sponsor this week is Shelly's Images. The winner will receive one digi image of their choice.

This card is also my challenge creation for the weekly challenge this week here at Made Especially For You - create a card featuring machine embossing. Click here to check it out, I would love if you played along with us! Thanks for reading, check back next Wednesday for another The Perfect Sentiment guest designer card! :)

Ashley

My First Scrapbook Layout!

2012-01-10T16:52:00.000-06:00

Well, I did it... I finally made my first scrapbook layout! :) I am not yet a scrapbooker, but plan to be one day when I actually have events to scrapbook that don't include waking up and either going to work or to school, LOL. I made the layout for the holiday layout DT challenge this week at Becky's Sweet Creations.

What I used to make the layout:
- Fancy-Filled Trees paper by The Paper Studio
- Red, green, cream, and gold cardstock
- Chipboard letters with gold acrylic paint
- Winter Lace cartridge

I had a lot of fun making the layout and can't wait until I can really start scrapbooking one day. I don't plan on putting pictures on it because I don't have any, but I thought it was good practice, at least.

Thanks for stopping by!
Ashley

Snow Days Blog Hop Winner

2012-01-09T15:20:00.000-06:00

And the winner is...

#16 Tina said: "Simple is so elegant! Beautiful card!" and "Gorgeous!! What a pretty banner! And I actually have this cartridge!! Yay!"

Congratulations, Tina! I'll be sending you an email shortly so you can claim your blog candy. :)

Thanks to all who participated in the Snow Days hop! Come back this Friday, January 14th, for the Based On A Book blog hop. We have lots of fun book-themed projects to share with you!

Snow Days Blog Hop - Day 2

2012-01-08T00:00:00.000-06:00

Welcome to the Snow Days Blog Hop!

We're so happy you could join us for this super-fun hop showcasing cards, layouts and projects that featuring everything about Snow Days! You'll find an array of ideas throughout the hop - we hope you enjoy each and every project along the way!

If you'd like to join our Snow Days fun, then you're in the right place. Keep alert for blog candy along the way, as some hop stops will be offering some goodies.

For the second day of the hop, I created a snowflake banner. This was actually the first project I made using my Cricut, so I'm super excited to share it with you! I used the Winter Lace cartridge to make all of the layers of snowflakes.

Sorry about the gold background, we actually don't have any white walls in my house, so I had to go with hanging the banner against a sandy beige color paint, even though it looks much more gold in the picture. The colors of the snowflakes are pretty exact, though.

Here's a close-up of each letter. None of these snowflakes are the same! :) The bigger snowflakes were cut at 6 inches and I believe the smaller snowflakes were cut at 3 inches. The letters are from the Pooh Font cart and were cut at 2 1/2 inches, I believe. They look black in the picture but are really dark blue.

And now for the fun part of the hop... blog candy! I'm giving away the following winter goodies:

- 1 spool of light blue ribbon

- 1 package of snowflake stickers

- 1 package of blue flowers by Studio G

- 1 bottle of silver glitter glue by Studio G

- 1 package of blue rhinestones

Entering to win is easy! Here's what you have to do:
1.) Become a follower (if you aren't already)
2.) Leave a comment with your contact information on either day of the hop (you'll be entered twice if you comment both days! :)
3.) Like the 'Made Especially For You' Facebook page

The winner will be randomly chosen and announced on Monday January 9th.

Here's a list of the entire hop, in case you get lost along the way or want to revisit someone:

Lisa P - http://handmadewithlove-lisa.blogspot.com/
Bonnie - http://scrap-n-away.blogspot.com/
Sherry -http://www.upordowntheyrebeautiful.blogspot.com/
Doris - http://mybugandmecreate.blogspot.com/
Theresa D: http://scrappinginheels.blogspot.com/
Beckie http://justbcreativecrazy.blogspot.com/
Erin - http://deeplyrootedlife.blogspot.com/
Amy - http://www.lovetocrop.com/
Eva - http://evasscrapsncards.blogspot.com/
Cathie-http://cathiescafe-scraphappy.blogspot.com
Ashley - http://especiallymade.blogspot.com/ <--- YOU ARE HERE
Lisa G - http://www.bljgraves.blogspot.com/ <--- YOUR NEXT STOP
Melissa - http://timeweavers.wordpress.com/
Kristen - http://fantabulouslypink.blogspot.com/
Theresa - http://scrappyartcrafters.blogspot.com/
anita- http://www.anitaandbugs.blogspot.com/
Lynne - http://slasewcraftiness.blogspot.com/
Barbara B. http://barbarab3.blogspot.com/
Amy Jo - http://lv2scrapandfibrofacts.blogspot.com/
Mickie - http://www.littlescrapcorner.blogspot.com/
Janet Royer- http://janetscreativeworld.blogspot.com/

Thank you for stopping by and checking out my project! Now hop on over to Lisa's blog! :)

Snow Days Blog Hop - Day 1

2012-01-06T23:00:00.008-06:00

Welcome to the Snow Days Blog Hop!

We're so happy you could join us for this super-fun hop showcasing cards, layouts and projects that featuring everything about Snow Days! You'll find an array of ideas throughout the hop - we hope you enjoy each and every project along the way!

If you'd like to join our Snow Days fun, then you're in the right place. Keep alert for blog candy along the way, as some hop stops will be offering some goodies.

For the first day of the hop, I've created a simple snow card.

And now for the fun part of the hop... blog candy! I'm giving away the following winter goodies:

- 1 spool of light blue ribbon

- 1 package of snowflake stickers

- 1 package of blue flowers by Studio G

- 1 bottle of silver glitter glue by Studio G

- 1 package of blue rhinestones

The winner will be randomly chosen and announced on Monday January 9th.

Here's a list of the entire hop, in case you get lost along the way or want to revisit someone:

Thank you for stopping by and checking out my project! Now hop on over to Lisa's blog! :)

Design Team Call!

2012-01-06T18:52:00.002-06:00

Made Especially For You is looking for five enthusiastic, passionate and committed crafters that would like to be part of a design team that contributes to weekly card challenges. Card makers of all skill levels are welcome!

As a Design Team member, you will be required to do the following:

·      Create a minimum of four cards per month to submit as a design team sample for each weekly challenge
·      Be an active participant in the design team Facebook group
·      Have an active blog
·      Post your weekly challenge creations on your blog and promote our sponsors
·      Meet challenge and posting deadlines, also comment on challenge entries

Interested applications should submit the following information by email:

· Name and short bio

· 3 cards you have created that you feel showcase your best talent and card making style

· Link to your blog

Please submit your application to especiallymadeblog@gmail.com. The information must be submitted by Sunday January 22^nd in order to be qualified for a position. The chosen design team members will be notified on Monday January 23^rd and announced on the blog on February 1^st. Participation will begin immediately with the first challenge occurring during the week of February 6^th – February 12^th.

Any other comments, questions, or concerns can be sent to Ashley at especiallymadeblog@gmail.com. Thank you for your interest.

PSC #13: Valentine with Vellum

2012-01-04T00:00:00.024-06:00

Happy Wednesday, everyone! I'm excited to announce that I've been chosen to be a guest designer over at The Perfect Sentiment for the month of January! I've been playing along with them for a few weeks now, and I've come to really love their challenges. Check them out if you have the chance! :)

This week's challenge is to create a card with a sentiment for "Valentine's Day" AND use vellum on your project. How fun! :) After making nonstop Christmas and winter cards, it was nice to make a different-themed card for a change. Here's what I came up with:

Vellum was used for a layer on the heart, as well as the surface that the sentiment is stamped on.

The sponsor for this the challenge over at The Perfect Sentiment this week is Eyelets Etc. They'll be giving away a sheet of vellum stickers to the winner!

Thanks so much for reading! Check back each Wednesday in January to see my guest designer cards! :)

Ashley

And the winners are...

2012-01-03T15:00:00.000-06:00

Out With The Old and In With The New Blog Hop

#16 Doris said... "ooohh love the beach scene card... wishing I was there right now.. feel the warmth :)"

"so love the moon and star card! what an awesome idea"

Congratulations, Doris! I'll be sending you an email so you can claim your prize. :)

Toast To Life Blog Hop

#18 Vicki said... "Very nice card! I really like the colors you have chosen. Family is so important and you have honored yours here."

Congratulations, Vicki! I'll be sending you an email so you can claim your prize. :)

Thanks to all who participated in either blog hop this past weekend, come back this weekend (January 7th & 8th) for a chance to win some more blog candy in a two-day Snow Days Blog Hop!

Ashley

A Toast To Life Blog Hop

2012-01-02T02:00:00.005-06:00

Hi everyone! Welcome to the A Toast To Life blog hop. If you've come from Lina's blog, then you're in the right place. If you've just come across the hop and would like to start from the beginning, please visit Liz's blog.

The purpose of this hop is to make a toast to life by creating anything that represents the best things in our life. I'd have to say the best things in my life would be my family, my friends, blogging, and of course my boyfriend, who is also my best friend. Rather than making a project for each aspect of my life that I would like to toast, I decided to make a thank you card to express my gratitude for all of them.

This card is also being entered in this week's sketch challenge over at The Perfect Sentiment.

I'd like to say thank you to my family for always being there for me and for always supporting whatever it is I want to do.

I'd like to thank my friends for being there for me when I need someone to vent to, and for always putting a smile on my face when I need some cheering up.

I'd like to thank my boyfriend for always, always being there for me and for putting up with me even on my worst days. He is always so supportive and encouraging and I can go to him with anything.

And last, but most certainly not least, I'd like to thank all of the friends I've made since I started my blog this past summer. If it wasn't for your kind words and support, I wouldn't be here posting this today. Thank you for always answering my silly, amateur craft questions and for always finding something nice to say about my work, even when it may not be my best. Thank you to all my followers who have supported me in one or another, it is your encouragement and kind words that allow me to want to keep blogging.

And now for the fun part of the hop... blog candy! :) I'll be giving away the following crafty goodies:

- 10 sheets of assorted mat stack papers

- 30 sheets of assorted 6 x 6 papers

- 2 rubber stamps

- 1 set of bling by Studio G

- 1 spool of blue ribbon

Entering to win is easy! Here's what you have to do:

1.) Become a follower (if you aren't already)

2.) Leave a comment on this post with your contact information (preferably an email address)

3.) 'Like' the Made Especially For You Facebook page

Your next stop is Mindy's blog! Thanks so much for hopping along with us!

Out With The Old and In With The New Blog Hop - Day 2

2012-01-01T00:00:00.009-06:00

Welcome to the Out With The Old and In With The New two-day New Year's Blog Hop! We're so happy you could join the Made Especially For You design team in celebrating the new year. Day one of the hop will feature some of our favorite projects we've created this past year, and day two of the hop will feature a New Year's themed project. If you've come from another blog in the hop and are looking to start at the beginning of the hop, you're in the right place. :)

The weekly challenge this week here at Made Especially For You is to create a New Year's card featuring glitter. Although the challenge won't officially start until tomorrow, I thought I'd share my card as my New Year's project for the hop.

I actually found this challenge more challenging than I thought it would be. I decided to play around with the 'Luau' cartridge and see what I could come up with. Who doesn't want to be celebrating the new year on a warm, sandy beach? :) I glittered the middle of the leaves, the drink glasses and the middle of the sun.

Be sure to stop by tomorrow to enter your own New Year's card with glitter into the challenge! The sponsor this week is Liz from Decade of Scrap. She will be offering the randomly chosen winner up to three sets of digital New Year's sentiments!

What fun is a blog hop without blog candy? I'll be giving away the following crafty goodies:

- 1 spool of pink ribbon

- 1 clear stamp set

- 1 set of gold/silver rhinestones

- Assorted chipboard pieces

- Paper Bliss scrapbook accent frame

- 1 package of green, wooden buttons

- 2 pre-made cards and envelopes

- 1 rubber stamp

Entering to win is easy! Here's what you have to do:
1.) Become a follower (if you aren't already)
2.) Comment on a post either day of the hop (you'll be entered twice if you comment both days)
3.) 'Like' the Made Especially For You Facebook page

The winner will be randomly chosen and announced on Tuesday January 3rd.

Your next stop is Jamie's blog - she has some wonderful projects to share with you!

Out With The Old and In With The New Blog Hop - Day 1

2011-12-31T00:00:00.007-06:00

Welcome to the Out With The Old and In With The New two-day New Year's Blog Hop! We're so happy you could join the Made Especially For You design team in celebrating the new year. Day one of the hop will feature some of our favorite projects we've created this past year, and day two of the hop will feature a New Year's themed project. If you've come from another blog in the hop and are looking to start at the beginning of the hop, you're in the right place. :)

Since I've only been blogging since June and just got my Cricut last week, it was hard to choose a few favorites since my card making has improved a lot since I first started over the summer. After taking a quick trip down memory lane, I found a couple of cards that I remember feeling really proud of after making them.

This card was made using inspiration from a Mojo Monday challenge sketch and was created especially for a design team application. I love the colors and the simplicity of it. It's one of the few cards I've made that I felt turned out almost perfect.

This card was made just for fun, and is also one of the only cards I've ever decorated the inside of just for fun. Normally I only decorate the inside of the card if I'm actually giving it to someone, but I liked the idea of finishing the quote on the inside for this one. The front of the card reads 'shoot for the moon' and the inside says 'even if you miss, you'll land among the stars.'

There you have it! Two of my favorite cards from 2011. I hope to have many favorites in 2012.

What fun is a blog hop without blog candy? I'll be giving away the following crafty goodies:

- 1 spool of pink ribbon

- 1 clear stamp set

- 1 set of gold/silver rhinestones

- Assorted chipboard pieces

- Paper Bliss scrapbook accent frame

- 1 package of green, wooden buttons

- 2 pre-made cards and envelopes

- 1 rubber stamp

The winner will be randomly chosen and announced on Tuesday January 3rd.

Your next stop is Jamie's blog - she has some wonderful projects to share with you! Make sure to stop by for the second day of the hop, too! :)

Merry Christmas & Exciting News!

2011-12-25T12:29:00.000-06:00

Merry Christmas, everyone! I hope you have a great holiday with your loved ones. My family celebrated with our extended family on the 23rd and the 24th, so today we're just relaxing around the house. Well, they might be, but I'll be playing with my brand new Cricut Expression! :) My camera isn't charged and I'm too impatient to wait to take pictures, lol, but here are the cartridges I got with it:

- Winter Lace

- Luau

- Happy Graduation

- Father's Day

- Mini Monsters

- Groovy Times

- Winnie the Pooh Font Set

- Destinations

I can't wait to get started on all of my upcoming projects. I've been holding off on making them in case I got a Cricut for Christmas, so I'm glad the waiting paid off. It's been nice taking a few days off from crafting, but I'm ready to start playing again!

I hope Santa was as good to you as he was to me, enjoy the rest of your holiday! :)

Ashley

Gift-Wrapped Envelopes

2011-12-20T10:43:00.000-06:00

Hi everyone! I can't believe there's only 5 days until Christmas - time has gone by so fast! My family starts celebrating Christmas on the 23rd, and it's even harder to believe that it's only 3 days away. The weather here in northern Illinois hasn't helped much either, we've had temps in the 30's and 40's lately and with barely any snow, it sure doesn't feel like Christmastime. Today I'd like to share with you the envelopes I made for my coworkers that contain their Christmas cards. I've been working on this project since October, and it feels so good to finally have completed it.

I handmade the 5 in x 5 in envelopes using papers from the SugarPlum Recollections paper pad (the cards are made from these papers also). I tried to make sure that the same paper on the card wasn't used for the envelope, and if there was more red on the card to use more green on the envelope, you get the idea. I then created tags (with a glitter border) and chose a bow and ribbon color for each card based off the colors on the envelope paper. Here are a few samples:

The envelopes were made using a 5 x 5 envelope template, a scoring tool, two-sided tape and glue dots. They're super easy and fun to make!

I made a total of 21 cards/envelopes for my coworkers this year. I put them in their mailboxes last night, and I'm excited to hear what they say about them. I loved the idea of giving the envelopes a gift-like appearance because it makes receiving only a card more exciting than just receiving a card in a plain envelope, at least in my opinion.

All 21 of the cards. I couldn't find a good place to take the picture other than my bed, so I apologize for the poor quality. :/ One new year's resolution I'll definitely be working on is taking better pictures! You can at least see the variety of paper/ribbon combos used.

Thanks for reading! :)

Ashley

Sponsor Call!

2011-12-17T22:05:00.000-06:00

Have a digital stamp store, etsy shop, or simply want to show off your own handmade talents? Become a sponsor for the newest feature of Made Especially For You - weekly challenges! Made Especially For You now hosts weekly challenges that ALL bloggers are welcome to enter.

Our design team is looking for sponsors for 2012 to provide a sponsorship for one or more of our weekly challenges.

What exactly does being a sponsor entail?
- Offering a prize for the winner of the challenge (the prize is 100% up to the sponsor, they can choose whatever they would like to give away, whether it correlates with the challenge or not)

- Promotion of the sponsor's blog through the challenge, Made Especially For You's Facebook page and also through the blogs of the other ten design team members

- The design team is also willing to incorporate your offerings into the challenge, for example if you own a digital stamp store and are giving away a particular set of digital stamps, we would love to use those in our design team challenge sample creations!

Interested in becoming a sponsor? We'd love to have you! Send an e-mail to especiallymadeblog@gmail.com regarding this post and I'll go ahead and send you the available challenges that you can choose from as well as answer any questions you may have! :)

Ashley
Made Especially For You DT Leader
especiallymadeblog@gmail.com

Photo Inspiration by Perfect Sentiments

2011-12-15T20:56:00.001-06:00

I just drank my first cup of hot chocolate of the season and am ready to settle down and write this post. :) Tonight I'd like to share with you the card I made for this week's Perfect Sentiments challenge.

The flowers look coral-colored in the picture (I'm so sorry!) but they really are pink like the flowers in the inspiration photo are, I promise.

The challenge was to create a card reflecting an anniversary sentiment based off the following picture:

When I first saw the picture, I automatically knew I wanted to use the colors in the photo, white and black with a hint of blue. I also knew I wanted to use some form of lacy ribbon to match the curtain, but then I didn't know where to go from there. After contemplating for a while, I decided to use the flowers in the picture and found the 'perfect sentiment' (no pun intended) to match the card. I handmade the flowers using a flower punch and watercolor paint, and added the pearls around the border of the die cut shape. I'm actually really pleased with how it turned out! :)

Thanks for reading! :)

Ashley

'Happy Birthday' Snowflake Card

2011-12-12T00:00:00.008-06:00

Happy Monday, everyone! :) The weekly challenge here at Made Especially For You this week is to create a card or scrapbook layout featuring snow or snowflakes - my favorite! The timing between this challenge and my cousin's birthday worked perfectly, she had a sweet sixteen party over the weekend that was decorated with snowflakes, penguins, etc. I made her a birthday card featuring snowflakes to match the theme of her party:

The card is 5 in x 5 in.

The card was also based off the same Mojo Monday sketch that the card in my previous post is based off, which you can view here. For those of you who saw the exploding box I created for a challenge a while back, these are the same winter papers from Little Yellow Bicycle that I used to create the box.

Materials Used:

~ Winter papers by Little Yellow Bicycle

~ Green ribbon by Studio G

~ 'Happy Birthday' clear stamp with black ink

~ White cardstock

~ Silver glitter

~ Glitter snowflakes and a white button

~ Pop dots, double-sided tape, tacky glue and glue dots

Make sure to check out the weekly challenge if you haven't already. Our sponsor, K 'n K Designs, is giving away the winner's choice of three digital stamp sets!

Once I'm finished with my last two finals tomorrow, I'll have an entire month to catch up on crafting and regular posting - I can't wait! :) I'm looking forward to having time to craft without trying to make a card in a time crunch, it'll be so nice.

Have a great week! :)

Ashley

Perfect Sentiments Challenge Entry

2011-12-08T22:11:00.000-06:00

Hi everyone! I'm super excited I have time for a post during the actual week this week, lately it's come down to posting my weekly challenge entry on Mondays and occasionally a card post here and there. Today I'd like to share with you a card I made specially for the Perfect Sentiments challenge - to create a Christmas card and make it sparkle! I'm a total glitter girl, so this challenge was a lot of fun for me. :) There's glitter on the border of the ribbon, in the cardstock and also around the sentiment.

The card was based off last week's Mojo Monday sketch, which unfortunately I didn't have time to enter. This sketch is so cute, I'll definitely be using it as inspiration in the future!

Thanks so much for stopping by, have a fantastic Friday! :)

Ashley

Ornament Challenge & My First Digi Stamp Card!

2011-12-05T00:00:00.000-06:00

Happy Monday, everyone! Today I'd like to share with you the ornament I made for the weekly challenge here at Made Especially For You and also the first card I made using a digital stamp! :)

The ornament I used for the challenge this week is actually an ornament I made last year. I made about thirty of these for my fourth-grade TA class last year for Christmas - they loved them! I bought clear candy bags and put them in there with some candy and tied them together with a ribbon and with a tag that had there names on it - I wish I had taken pictures so I could share them! :/ I ended up having an extra penguin ornament because one of the kids moved so I saved it for my own tree, and was able to take a picture of it this year. :)

The ornament is made out of wood pieces that I painted using acrylic paint and hot-glued together. If I remember right, I believe I used one large heart for the body, two ovals for the wings, two stars for the feet, one small circle for the head, and one small heart for the beak. I used pipe cleaners to make the candy cane and then a red pipe cleaner and pom pons for the earmuffs. I attached a red loop of ribbon on the back so it could be an ornament. I "scraplifted" the project idea from the Michael's store website, I tried finding a link but couldn't, I found it over a year ago so I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't posted anymore.

The sponsor the challenge this week is the super cute Digi Doodle Shop, and I couldn't resist using one of their adorable digital stamps. I found this cute penguin to match the ornament, and also realized there was an ornament on the card to match this week's challenge - how perfect! :) I colored him using colored pencils (I don't own any Copics, and this was my first time using a digital stamp) and made a really simple card.

I added some cotton to the fur trim on the hat to give it a more 3D effect.

Thanks so much for reading! Make sure to stop by the challenge page and enter an ornament if you haven't already - your creation will be entered for a chance to win a $10 gift certificate to the Digi Doodle Shop!

Ashley

Warm Up With A Book!

2011-11-30T08:00:00.000-06:00

Over the summer, I posted one of the bulletin boards I created for the children's department at the library where I work. It's definitely one of my favorite parts of my job, seeing as I get to put my craft side to good use. :) I put up this bulletin board a couple of days ago since the weather is getting chillier here and winter is fast approaching.

It's always fun trying to come up with an idea for a bulletin board and then utilizing the library's craft supplies to make it. For this bulletin board, I actually used the fire I used on the board I made over the summer (which you can view here). I like reusing creations myself or other coworkers have made because then they really get put to good use. The penguins are made from a clipart image I found online and colored with markers. I covered the background with blue paper and then added white paper on the bottom to look like snow.

Close-up of the cute snowmen border. The library has a really cute stock of borders to choose from. I'm still working on getting the paper flat, lol. It's a pain in the butt!

Close-up of one of the penguins. I tried my best to color well enough so the penguin didn't look like it was colored.

Close-up of the fire, made from tissue paper, gray construction paper and glitter.

Thanks so much for reading, Happy Wednesday! :)

Ashley

Easy As 1, 2, 3! Challenge Card

2011-11-28T00:00:00.001-06:00

I hope you all had a fabulous holiday weekend! I certainly enjoyed my break from schoolwork, although I'm not thrilled to pick up where I left off today. :/ At least this week's challenge is here to cheer me up! :)

The challenge this week here at Made Especially For You is to create a card or scrapbook layout featuring '3' of something, whether it be ribbons, colors, papers, brads, etc. Click here to view the DT's awesome creations and also enter the challenge!

I created a simple card for the challenge this week, with the end of the semester workload increasing, it's been harder and harder to find time to craft. I can already tell I won't be sleeping much this week because of all the things I have to get done. Anyways, enough of my rambling, here's the card I made for the challenge:

Left: Front view of the card Right: Side view of the card

I'm glad I'm finally getting the hang of taking better pictures! The lighting in my bathroom is actually fairly decent, and using white cardstock as both a vertical and horizontal backdrop helps a lot.

I absolutely fell in love with the background paper when I first saw it at Michael's. I love the fun colors and stripes! It's been a while since I've made a bright card, so I was excited when I got to use it for the challenge. I used three circles as well as three rectangles to comply with the challenge.

What I Used To Make The Card:

~ Background paper (sorry, I forgot the name! It's made by Recollections)

~ Blue, light pink, pink, purple & white cardstock paper

~ 1" circle punch

~ 'Just For You' stamp with black ink

~ Cuttlebug with the 'Spots n' Dots' embossing folder

~ Glue dots, paper trimmer & scissors

Thanks so much for stopping by! We hope you play along with us! :)

Ashley

Sparkly Snowflake Ornaments

2011-11-23T12:29:00.001-06:00

The weekly DT challenge over at Becky's Sweet Creations this week was to create an ornament. I just happened to be at Michael's the other evening when they had their special 25% off your entire purchase (including sale items!) sale from 4pm-9pm. Let's just say I spent a little more than I should have... :) While looking for something to inspire my ornament I found these super cute wooden snowflakes for only $1! Well, technically 75 cents since I got them 25% off. :) I found some winter-colored acrylic paint (only 69 cents) and painted them and then spruced them up with a bit of glitter.

The paint on the snowflake looks grey, but it's really blue. Take a look at the pictures below if you don't believe me! :)

I actually used two different color silver glitters for this snowflake. It's hard to tell in the picture, but you can sort of see it a little bit. :/

Other than a paint brush and an Elmer's glue pen, here's what I used to make the ornaments:

For the glitter, I used the colors 'Silver', 'Ocean', and 'Bling' For the acrylic paint, I used the colors 'Slate Grey' and 'Winter Blue.'

Here's a close-up of the actual paint color. See, I told you it was blue! :)

I'm so thankful for the wonderful ladies on my DT and also anyone who has supported my blog over the past six months or so. It's hard to believe how fast time has gone, and I'm so happy with the progress my blog has made. Thanks to everyone who has helped it grow! Have a very, very happy Thanksgiving. :)

Ashley

Education Cards & A Blog Candy Winner

2011-11-21T13:46:00.000-06:00

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a great weekend and are enjoying the start of the holiday week! My creation for the Thanksgiving challenge this week was featured in the Give Thanks Blog Hop I participated in over this past weekend. You can view the card here. Unfortunately no more entries are being accepted for a chance to win the blog candy because... we have a winner!

Congratulations to Denise over at VinDeeLoo's This 'n That on winning 100 sheets of paper! I'll be contacting you shortly so you can claim your prize.

I recently participated in an Education Panel event at my college and was asked to make thank-you cards for the eleven teachers that were on the panel. I was so excited! Unfortunately I was asked a bit last minute and was in a time crunch, so I enlisted the help of my friend Tammy over at My Cricut Craft Chamber! Thanks so much Tammy for providing me with the adorable apples and chalkboards. :) Here are some pictures of the cards:

Close-up of the card. I found a black and white clipart picture of a ruler online and printed it on yellow-gold cardstock and then cut them all out by hand.

Side view. There's a typed thank you message on the inside with either red or green background paper, I didn't have enough of either to fill all eleven cards so I made half of each.

All eleven of the cards

Thanks so much for reading! If you haven't already, stop by the 'Weekly Challenge' page to see some fabulous Thanksgiving projects created by the DT and also enter your Thanksgiving project for a chance to win some super cute clipart sets from MyGrafico!

Ashley

Give Thanks Blog Hop - Day 2

2011-11-19T23:00:00.008-06:00

Welcome to Day 2 of the Give Thanks Blog Hop! We're so happy to have you hopping along with us. :) If you came from Leah's blog, then you're in the right place! If you just came across the hop and would like to start at the beginning, please visit Denise's blog.

For the second day of the hop I created a simple Thanksgiving card. I normally don't use stickers or foam pieces on my cards, but I couldn't pass up the bag of Thanksgiving-themed foam stickers at Michael's on clearance for only $1.50. Aren't they adorable?!

What fun is a blog hop without blog candy?! I'll be giving away the following 100 sheets of 6 x 6 inch assorted papers:

Top: 100 sheets of paper stacked

Bottom: Just some of the papers included in the 100 being given away!

Entering to win is simple! Here's what you have to do:

1.) Become a follower (if you aren't already)

2.) 'Like' the Made Especially For You Facebook page

3.) Comment on a post either day of the hop with your contact information (you'll be entered a second time if you enter both days)

Thanks again for hopping along with us! Your next stop is Alina's blog.

Give Thanks Blog Hop - Day 1

2011-11-18T23:00:00.043-06:00

Welcome to Day 1 of the Give Thanks Blog Hop! We're so happy to have you hopping along with us. :) If you came from Leah's blog, then you're in the right place! If you just came across the hop and would like to start at the beginning, please visit Denise's blog.

This hop is all about Thanksgiving and showing what we're thankful for! I created this 'give thanks' card for the hop and also for this week's DT challenge over at Becky's Sweet Creations. There's nothing like multitasking and killing two birds with one stone! :)

The challenge was to use three buttons, ribbon, something gold and/or something Thanksgiving related. Perfect combination for this hop! :) The paper is 'Remember Souvenirs' by Recollections. The buttons are random buttons I chose from my mom's sewing stash, I thought they matched the color combo nicely. The gold border is a vintage cut for the cuttlebug, and the border of the card is twisted ribbon. It was too wide (I think it was two inches wide) to use as a bow for the card, so I twisted it tightly and adhered it to the border of the card using glue dots. The stamp is obviously computer generated and printed on cream colored cardstock, with a dark green layer of cardstock behind it.

What fun is a blog hop without blog candy?! I'll be giving away the following 100 sheets of 6 x 6 inch assorted papers:

Top: 100 sheets of paper stacked

Bottom: Just some of the papers included in the 100 being given away!

Entering to win is simple! Here's what you have to do:

1.) Become a follower (if you aren't already)

2.) 'Like' the Made Especially For You Facebook page

3.) Comment on a post either day of the hop with your contact information (you'll be entered a second time if you enter both days)

Thanks again for hopping along with us! Your next stop is Alina's blog.

For a chance to win a free exploding box ornament kit from Lindsay's Stamp Stuff, create an exploding box and enter it into Made Especially For You's weekly challenge!

Exploding Box

2011-11-14T00:05:00.000-06:00

The challenge this week here at Made Especially For You is to make an exploding box. You can enter the challenge by clicking here. I had never made (or even heard of) an exploding box before, and was actually really nervous about this challenge. I found this great tutorial that really helped me out. Thankfully, it was easier than I thought it would be!

Inside of the box. There are three different layers. I loved that the papers were so bold because then less embellishing was needed. When read clockwise, the inside says "snow."

This is what the box looks like all closed up. This is why I loved the double-sided paper! The outside of the box is different than the papers on the inside. Instead of using ribbon I tied the bow with lace, it gives it a more "wintery" feel.

I made my first trip to the scrapbooking store Archiver's (aka: heaven) last week and found some really gorgeous winter-themed paper that I knew would be PERFECT for my exploding box. The paper is double-sided and fairly heavy. The papers are made by Little Yellow Bicycle. Here are the 6 (well, 12, if you count both sides) sheets I purchase to make my box. I was so excited about them I just had to make cute collages to show you! :)

Thanks for reading, we hope you play along with us! :)

Ashley

Epilepsy Awareness Blog Hop Winner

2011-11-13T20:35:00.000-06:00

And the winner is... Sue from Sue in CT! Congratulations, Sue! I will be contacting you shortly, you will have one week to claim your prize before it is awarded to another participant.

Thanks so much to everyone who participated in our hop, it means a lot that you helped support such a great cause. Have a great night!

Ashley

16 Rubber Stamps for $5!

2011-11-12T00:00:00.002-06:00

Hi everyone! Just a quick post today. Thanks to everyone who participated in the Epilepsy Awareness Blog Hop! I'll announce the winner of my blog candy on Monday. :)

Today I wanted to share with you a recent crafty purchase. I love doing reviews and wish I got to do more, but unfortunately my budget just doesn't allow for it. :( I was at Michael's the other night and couldn't pass this deal up - 16 rubber stamps along with red and green glitter glue AND ink for only $5!! It was originally $10 but on sale for 50% off. It's a Christmas-themed set made by Recollections.

This is the same set - notice the 8 different stamps on each side! The glitter glue and ink are on top.

Because they're usually so expensive, I don't have very many rubber stamps or ink. So when I saw this I definitely couldn't pass it up, especially since they can be used on Christmas cards I'm making for my coworkers. I also plan on making some fun, Christmas-themed tags with them. :)

Has anyone else seen or purchased this set at their local Michael's?

Have a great weekend!

Ashley

Epilepsy Awareness Blog Hop

2011-11-11T00:00:00.000-06:00

Hello crafty friends! Thank you for joining for our Epilepsy Awareness Blog Hop. You will see great projects and read about some of our personal experiences with Epilepsy. Epilepsy is a medical condition that produces different types of seizures. Epilepsy affects 50 million people worldwide. If you would like to read more information about Epilepsy you can go to the Epilepsy foundation online at: www.epilepsyfoundation.org

If you came from Holley's blog, you're in the right place! If you just came across the hop and would like to participate, here's the complete lineup:

Holley @ Holley's Blog
Ashley @ Made Especially For You <---------- You Are Here
Jessica @ Can You Pixel This
Lora @ Notes From The Scrapbooklady
Michelle @ Crafty Chelle
Rexann @ I Be Circled
Lisa @ Scrapping with Lisa
Zenita @ Scrappin' with Z
Sher @ Patterns by Sher

While I personally do not have Epilepsy, I know of people who do, including a cousin who sometimes suffers from epileptic seizures. I joined this hop because I wanted to help promote Epilepsy awareness and felt this was a great way to do so.

For the hop, I made an Epilepsy awareness card. If you couldn't tell already, the color for Epilepsy awareness is purple, so I made a primarily purple card.

The card is 5 in x 5 in. I embossed the border with the D'vine Swirl embossing folder and then went over the swirls with an Elmer's glue pen and sprinkled silver glitter, creating my own glitter glue. I also glittered the chipboard letters myself (which are actually a royal purple, not black) and added the purple awareness ribbon and a few rhinestones to match the silver in the border.

This pictures provides a much better perspective of the chipboard letters. You can actually tell they're purple and not black.

What fun is a blog hop without blog candy?! I'll be giving away the following purple goodies:

What's Included: 28 sheets of 6 x 6 patterned purple paper (4 of each shown in the picture), 2 spools of purple ribbon, purple glitter glue and purple ink by Studio G, 8 adhesive border frames, 6 purple heart punches and assorted purple chipboard pieces.

Entering to win is simple! Here's what you have to do:

1.) Become a follower (if you aren't already)

2.) Leave a comment on this post with your contact information

3.) 'Like' the Made Especially For You Facebook page

And that's it! The winner will be chosen via Random.org and announced on Monday November 14th along with the new weekly challenge. If you haven't already, stop by the 'Weekly Challenge' page and play along with us! This week's challenge is to create a card based off a PageMap sketch. We'd love to have you. :)

You're next stop is Jessica's blog! Thanks for hopping along with us and showing your support for not only our blogs but for epilepsy awareness as well.

Ashley

Tri-Fold Card

2011-11-09T11:35:00.000-06:00

Hi everyone! I hope you all are having a great week. My stress level has been absolutely through the roof lately, so it's been hard to find craft. When I do have the time, though, it definitely makes for a good stress reliever.

The weekly DT challenge over at Becky's Sweet Creations this week is to create a tri-fold card. I've only made one tri-fold card before, and that was for the Becky's Sweet Creations Boy/Girl Blog Hop I participated in about a month ago. I actually used the same template from that card to make this card, which you can view here. The only difference is that this time I made my tri-fold card horizontal instead of vertical, which is something I personally have never seen done before.

I had to put this card together rather quickly, as I've been swamped with everything and am slowly starting to fall behind my crafting schedule. :( The card was inspired from the polka dot paper that is used as the outside of the card. From there I just found whatever supplies I could that matched the colors of the polka dots, and just went with the flow from there.

View of the bottom of the card. The blue paper is embossed with a mini flower embossing folder with my Cuttlebug. I left a blank yellow space at the bottom where a message could be written.

The letters are from a scrapbook kit I won a few months ago, unfortunately for the life of me I can't remember the name of it. It's a really cute kit that came with a lot of fun colored paper and embellishments. The flower stickers came from there as well.

Outside of the card. I tied green ribbon around it to help keep it closed and to also give it a "present" appearance since it's a birthday card. I'm terrible at tying bows... I'm working on it!

I'm really sorry about the poor quality of these pictures. It's been non-stop cloudy for a few days now and because of that I havent' had any natural sunlight to take the pictures near. The lighting in my house is terrible for pictures and I take them with the camera on my iPod. Over winter break one of my goals is to come up with a spot for all of my craft pictures to be taken so that they actually look nice. Thanks for bearing with me. :)

Thanks so much for reading! If you haven't already, take a moment to stop by the Weekly Challenge page to enter this week's PageMap sketch challenge. Our sponsor is giving away a great prize!

Happy Wednesday! :)

Ashley

PageMap Sketch Challenge

2011-11-07T00:46:00.000-06:00

Made Especially For You's weekly challenge this week is to create a card based off a PageMap sketch. I had a lot of fun creating this card, as I love being inspired by sketches and already having a "foundation" for the card, yet being able to make it completely my own. I stuck with the sketch and turned it into a birthday card.

Materials:

- Dark purple, light purple, pink, red, yellow and brown cardstock

- Polka dot patterned cardstock

- Purple and black ink

- 'Happy Birthday' sentiment (clear stamp)

- 3 wood circles covered in yellow, blue and orange tissue paper

- Cuttlebug with 'D'vine Swirl' and 'Spots 'n Dots' embossing folders

- Red, brown, pink and gold glitter

- Elmer's glue pen

- Adhesive dots

The card is based off the following PageMap sketch:

Click here to enter this week's challenge! We'd love to have you play along with us. :)

Thanks so much for all of your support and taking the time to read! Stop by again this friday, November 11th, and support the Epilepsy Awareness Blog Hop. Blog candy included! :)

Ashley

Blue, Green and Pink Challenge

2011-11-01T09:42:00.001-05:00

Hi everyone! I'm so excited to announce that Made Especially For You will now have weekly challenges open for all bloggers to enter! This week's challenge is to create a card or scrapbook layout using the colors blue, green and pink. Click here to enter. The challenge is sponsored by Ready, Set, Create! and the winner will receive a one year free subscription to their magazine! We hope you play along with us. :)

Here's my challenge creation:

Ashley

Weekly DT Challenge - PageMap Sketch

2011-10-28T09:10:00.000-05:00

Good morning everyone! I'm not usually up this early on my day off (who doesn't like to sleep in?!) but this weekend is a rare one and I have the ENTIRE weekend off of work (yay!) so I'm spending it in the beautiful city of Chicago with my boyfriend. :) I wanted to get this post up today so that when I return on Sunday I can have everything ready for the brand new Made Especially For You weekly challenges.

The challenge at Becky's Sweet Creations this week was to create a card based off a PageMap sketch, which I've posted below. It's been a while since I've made a black and white card, and as soon as I saw the "flags" on the sketch I knew my black and white adhesive ribbons would be the perfect embellishments.

Close-up of the embossing

PageMap sketch the card is based off of

What I Used To Make The Card:
- Black and white cardstock paper
- Cuttlebug with Spots 'n Dots embossing folder
- Black and white patterned adhesive ribbon
- iRock with black and white gems
- White flower embellishment
- 'hello' stamp in white ink
- Circle cutter

Have a fabulous weekend! :)

Ashley

Card Swap Creations :)

2011-10-26T10:52:00.000-05:00

If you read my previous post, you know that I recently participated in my first card swap with the design team at Becky's Sweet Creations. Last time I shared with you what I received from the two-part swap (fall-themed cards and Halloween cards) and today I'm going to show you the cards I made for the swap. I wanted to wait until I knew that most of the other ladies received my cards before posting them so that

With my limited supplies, I knew that creating both of these cards were going to be a challenge. I needed materials that I could use a lot of without having to buy more. (I'm trying to cut down my crafting budget, it isn't easy but so far it's successful!) For the fall card, I knew I wanted to use the Cuttlebug fall leaves die cuts, and you know how I love my glitter, so I combined the two to have the best of both worlds. :)

Close-up of the card. I embossed the leaves with the D'vine Swirl embossing folder and then created my own glitter glue using an Elmer's glue pen and the appropriate color glitter (yellow with yellow leaves, orange with orange, etc.)

Here are the other five cards I made for the fall swap.

The second part of the swap was the Halloween group. I have only made a few Halloween cards since I've started paper crafting, but so far I haven't been pleased with ANY of the Halloween cards I've created. These turned out all right.

The one aspect I absolutely love about this card is the polka dot paper! I love polka dots and think the Halloween colors look so cute together. :) I handmade the ghosts and gave them googly eyes to liven them up a bit, and also embossed the green paper with polka dots and used my iRock to apply the gems in the corners of the card.

Close-up of the chipboard glittered letters. I painted each with acrylic paint and then sprinkled glitter on them before they dried so that I wouldn't have to go back and apply glue in order for the glitter to stick.

The seven Halloween cards I made for the swap.

Inside of the card. I felt so bad about leaving it blank! I found the cute jack o' lantern stamp at Michael's in the $1 bin and couldn't pass it up. Unfortunately I didn't have a 'Happy Halloween' stamp, so I hand wrote it and also distresses the bottom of the card with green ink to represent grass.

I had so much fun making the cards for this swap! I hope to do plenty more in the future. It does get a bit tiring after a while, though, having to make the same card over and over again. I usually use what I call an "assembly line" process and make the same element for each card all at the same time rather than individually making each card.

How do you go about making multiple cards for a swap? I'd love to hear your strategies and techniques!

Thanks for taking the time to read! :)

Ashley

Card Swap Goodies! :)

2011-10-24T16:34:00.000-05:00

I was so excited when I checked the mail today and found card swap goodies inside! This is the first card swap I've participated in so that makes it even more exciting. :) The swap was for the Becky's Sweet Creations DT that I'm a part of, and the swap itself was actually divided into two categories, fall-themed cards and Halloween cards. I made cards for both categories (which I'll post later this week), and here's what I received in return:

Halloween Card Swap

These were the Halloween swap cards. Aren't they just adorable?! The DT ladies did an awesome job :) I've posted close-ups below so that you can get a better look.

Close-up

Fall Card Swap

These are the cards I received for the fall swap, they're so pretty! I can't stop looking at them :) There's a couple more on the way that unfortunately didn't make it on time, so when I receive those I'll add them to this post :)

On a side note, weekly challenges open to all bloggers begin next week on November 1st! The first challenge will be sponsored by Ready, Set, Create! and they will be offering a free one-year subscription to their e-zine to the winner! The top 3 will also receive a prize button :) We hope you'll join us!

Thanks for reading! :)

Ashley

My First Easel Card!

2011-10-19T18:37:00.000-05:00

The weekly DT challenge at Becky's Sweet Creations this week is to create an easel card. While I have seen some absolutely stunning easel cards made by fellow bloggers, I myself had never made one until just recently. I'll admit I was a bit nervous at first seeing as that I usually only make cards that have "standard" shapes, but I found a really good tutorial online (which you can view here) that explained the process really well!

To make an easel card, you need a 12 x 12 sheet of paper. The majority of my paper collection is 8.5 x 11 because I am not a scrapbooker, and the only 12 x 12 sheet I had that was sturdy enough to be a card base was a bold yellow color, which you'll see in the pictures below. I also just bought a new birthday/party clear stamp set on clearance at Michael's for only $2.50 (I couldn't pass it up!) so I turned my easel card into a party invitation. The card itself is only 4 x 4 inches, which made it even more of a challenge to make since I'm used to creating larger cards.

Front view of the card. I left some space at the bottom for an extra message to be written if necessary.

Side view of the card. It doesn't look much like an easel card from the front, but from the side view you can definitely tell!

What I Used To Make The Card:

- Yellow, white and green cardstock paper

- Blue ink to distress edges

- Birthday/party clear stamp set in blank ink

- Cuttlebug with balloon die cuts

- Liquid adhesive and glue dots

I'm off to do some laundry and get a head start on upcoming challenges. Thanks for stopping by, enjoy the rest of your week! :)

Ashley

SPONSORS WANTED

2011-10-15T20:25:00.000-05:00

Have a digital stamp store, etsy shop, or simply want to show off your own handmade talents? Become a sponsor for the newest feature of Made Especially For You - weekly challenges! Starting in November, Made Especially For You will be hosting weekly challenges that ALL bloggers are welcome to enter!

Our design team is looking for sponsors to provide a sponsorship for one or more of our weekly challenges.

What exactly does being a sponsor entail?
- Offering a prize for the winner of the challenge (the prize is 100% up to the sponsor, they can choose whatever they would like to give away, whether it relates to the challenge or not)

- Promotion of the sponsor's blog through the challenge, Made Especially For You's Facebook page and also through the blogs of the other ten design team members

- The design team is also willing to incorporate your offerings into the challenge, for example if you own a digital stamp store and are giving away a particular set of digital stamps, we would love to use those in our design team challenge sample creations!

Interested in becoming a sponsor? We'd love to have you! Send an e-mail to especiallymadeblog@gmail.com regarding this post and we'll go ahead and send you the available challenges that you can choose from! :)

Ashley
Made Especially For You DT Leader
especiallymadeblog@gmail.com

Weekly DT Challenge - Handmade Flowers

2011-10-13T10:09:00.000-05:00

Hi everyone! I hope you all are having a great week, it's been beautiful here in Northern Illinois, in the 70's every day. Talk about an indian summer! :) I've been a good girl lately and have somehow miraculously caught up with all my homework (which doesn't happen very often) so I've had a lot of extra time for crafting lately. Last night I was actually able to complete this week's and also the next two weeks of challenges for the DT at Becky's Sweet Creations. It feels so good to finally be caught up!

The challenge this week was to create a card using handmade flowers. I'm still learning how to make them, but with a little more practice I think I'll get there. I'm so lucky to have Becky as a DT leader, she sent me over 100 flower punches! A flower punch is definitely next on my shopping list. :) Here's the card I created for this week's challenge:

The sentiment says 'For A Special Friend' sorry if it's hard to read.

Here's a close-up of the flowers. Each flower has four punches, so I used about 48 punches all together to make this card. They're painted with acrylic paint and once they dried I pinched them so that each layer was a little more "shriveled" than the next. They're super easy and so fun to make!

What I Used To Make The Card:

- White, yellow, green and purple cardstock paper

- 48 white cardstock flower punches

- Green, yellow and purple acrylic paint

- Cuttlebug with 'Floral Fantasy' embossing folder

- iRock with white gems

- 'For A Special Friend' sentiment in purple ink

- Circle cutter

- Liquid adhesive

Stop by Becky's Sweet Creations to see what other members of the DT came up with using flowers!

Thanks for reading!

Ashley

Meet the Made Especially For You Design Team!

2011-10-12T17:15:00.000-05:00

I'm so excited to announce that Made Especially For You has its first design team! The team consists of myself and ten other amazing designers. Our weekly DT challenges begin on November 1st, and we'd love for you to play along with us! We're in the process of coming up with weekly prizes, stay tuned for more information. :)

Gina

http://californiascrappin-gcinderella21.blogspot.com/

Sher

http://patternsbysher.blogspot.com/

Becky

http://beckyssweetcreations.blogspot.com/

Jennifer

http://blissfulplace.blogspot.com/

Jamie

http://scrapqueen141.blogspot.com/

Eileen

http://crazycricutmama.blogspot.com

Iris

http://kreativebastelideen.blogspot.com/

Abby

http://scrappin-abby.blogspot.com/

Amber

http://thecountryscrapper.blogspot.com/

Beckie

http://justbcreativecrazy.blogspot.com/

And The Winner Is...

2011-10-10T13:37:00.000-05:00

Tammy at My Cricut Craft Chamber! Congratulations, Tammy! I've sent you an e-mail with all of the information.

Thank you so much to everyone who took the time to participate in our hop and support our design team! We cannot express how appreciative we are. We hope to do more hops in the future and we'd love for you to join us!

Ashley

Becky's Sweet Creations Boy/Girl Blog Hop - Day 2

2011-10-09T00:00:00.003-05:00

Welcome to Day 2 of Becky's Sweet Creations 2 Day Boy/Girl Blog Hop! This weekend we're going to be sharing with you a variety of boy and girl-themed projects that our design team has created. This is our first hop as a design team, and we're so excited to have you with us. Thanks so much for joining us! :)

If you came from Becky's blog then you're in the right place! If you're new to the hop and would like to start at the beginning, you can also visit Becky's blog since hers is the first in the lineup. :)

Here's the complete lineup in case you get lost along the way:

Becky @ Becky's Sweet Creations

Ashley @ Made Especially For You <---------- You are here

Lisa @ Lisa's Creative Niche

Laura @ Laura's Crafts and More

Tammy @ The Cricut Craft Chamber

Carol @ Cardstock Scissors and Glue

Since yesterday's project was girl-themed, today's is boy-themed! I created another pop-up card to share with you, and I'm definitely a lot more pleased with this one than the one I posted yesterday! I hope you like it, too. :) I'll be honest and say that I didn't completely come up with the idea for this card, but I did tweak the original design to make it more of my own.

This is a close-up of the card, I just love it! If I had the time I would've made a girl version to go along with it, but unfortunately time just didn't allow for it this week. The posts to the laundry line are the pop-ups in this card. The grass, posts and baby clothes were all templates that I found, but the flowers are handmade and I did the embossing and glittering on the grass myself.

Here's a "long distance" shot of the card.

What fun would a blog hop be without blog candy?! :) I had so much fun searching through my stash

looking for boy/girl-themed goodies to giveaway. Luckily I found more than I thought I would! :)

- 12 sheets of 6x6 "boy" themed patterned paper

- Assorted brads in pastel colors

- 'baby' glittered chipboard letters in blue and pink

- Assorted punches

- Assorted chipboard embellishments in pastel colors (perfect for both cards and scrapbooking!)

Here's what you have to do to enter:

1.) Become a follower (if you aren't already)

2.) Comment on a post on either day of the hop (you'll be entered a second time if you comment both days)

3.) Leave a form of contact information in case you're the winner!

The winner will be chosen on Monday October 10th using random.org. I can't wait to give away the goodies! :)

Your next stop is Lisa's blog! Thanks so much for hopping along with us! :)

Ashley

Becky's Sweet Creations Boy/Girl Blog Hop - Day 1

2011-10-08T00:00:00.095-05:00

Welcome to Becky's Sweet Creations 2 Day Boy/Girl Blog Hop! This weekend we're going to be sharing with you a variety of boy and girl-themed projects that our design team has created. This is our first hop as a design team, and we're so excited to have you with us. Thanks so much for joining us! :)

Here's the complete lineup in case you get lost along the way:

Becky @ Becky's Sweet Creations

Ashley @ Made Especially For You <---------- You are here

Lisa @ Lisa's Creative Niche

Laura @ Laura's Crafts and More

Tammy @ The Cricut Craft Chamber

Carol @ Cardstock Scissors and Glue

I've been experimenting with pop-up cards recently, and the card I'm going to show you is about as simple as a pop-up card can get. :) It was the first one I made and since it relates to the "girl" portion of the hop, I thought it'd be perfect. Tomorrow I'll be sharing with you a more complex pop-up card I made that relates to the "boy" portion. :)

Front of the card

Inside of the card

Close-up of the inside bottom portion of the card

What fun would a blog hop be without blog candy?! :) I had so much fun searching through my stash

looking for boy/girl-themed goodies to giveaway. Luckily I found more than I thought I would! :)

- 12 sheets of 6x6 "boy" themed patterned paper

- Assorted brads in pastel colors

- 'baby' glittered chipboard letters in blue and pink

- Assorted punches

- Assorted chipboard embellishments in pastel colors (perfect for both cards and scrapbooking!)

Here's what you have to do to enter:

1.) Become a follower (if you aren't already)

2.) Comment on a post on either day of the hop (you'll be entered a second time if you comment both days)

3.) Leave a form of contact information in case you're the winner!

The winner will be chosen on Monday October 10th using random.org. I can't wait to give away the goodies! :)

Your next stop is Lisa's blog! Thanks so much for hopping along with us, make sure to stop by tomorrow, too! :)

Ashley

Red/Orange/Yellow DT Challenge

2011-10-07T13:49:00.000-05:00

Just a quick post this afternoon, I thought I'd share with you the card I made for the DT challenge at Becky's Sweet Creations. The challenge this week was to make a card using only the colors red, orange and yellow. Here's what I came up with:

(The lighter circles look white, but they're actually a pale yellow).

It's a busy day for me today, I just got home from volunteering to help set up a book sale that the library I work at is having. I'm off to make some lunch, get a haircut and then have a movie night with a friend tonight. And somewhere in there I also have to make time to finish up my blog hop creations! Make sure you stop by this weekend (October 8th & 9th) for the Boy/Girl Blog Hop! I'll be giving away some blog candy, too. :)

Have a great weekend!

Ashley

Cupcakes Galore

2011-10-04T21:57:00.000-05:00

Hello crafty friends! I hope you all are having a great week. :) My storytimes have been going really well lately. There have only been a few kids at each session (our evening storytimes unfortunately are nowhere near as popular as are morning storytimes) it's been the perfect amount for a beginning storytime coordinator. :) I'm going to share with you the past two weeks of storytime crafts that the kids and I have done.

The first craft I'm going to share with you is based on the story Little Mouse and the Big Cupcake. This story is so adorable, you should definitely read it if you have the chance! :)

For the craft we each made our own cupcakes and decorated them by first coloring them with crayons and then using a glue stick to apply glitter for the sprinkles. This was the first time using glitter for many of the kids, so they had a lot of fun with this. Unfortunately I don't have pictures of their creations to share with you, but I do have a picture of the sample cupcake I made:

For a transition activity between the story and the craft, I created a matching game for the kids to play using the felt board. I made mini versions of the cupcakes they decorated and created them so that they can be matched in three different ways: by the bottom paper color, the frosting color and the sprinkles. It was too hard to tell the differences between the sprinkle colors in the pictures, so I'm just going to show you the other ways they can be matched.

In this picture all of the cupcakes are matched by the bottom paper color. The sprinkles don't look very fun in this picture, but I promise they are when you see them in person! :)

In this picture the cupcakes are matched by the color of their frosting. The kids had so much fun moving the cupcakes around so that they matched!

Thanks so much for reading! Do any of you have fun storytime crafts you've made in the past? I'd love to hear your ideas!

Ashley

Made Especially For You

PSC #21: Round Robin Die Cut Week

MEFY Stitching Challenge!

Gettin' Crafty With Cricut Cuts Blog Hop - Day 2

Gettin' Crafty with Cricut Cuts Blog Hop - Day 1

PSC #20: Get Well Sketch

MEFY Challenge: Three Papers

PSC #19: Paper-Pierced Holidays & Seasons

Made Especially For You Sketch Challenge

Dying to become a 'Pinner?' Here's a Pinterest Tutorial!

PSC #18: Inspired with Love

Valentine's Card with A Tag

PSC #17: Missing A Button

Meet The New DT Members! :)

First Sketch Challenge!

Liebster Blog Award

PSC #16: Friendship Sketch

PSC #15: Resist-Embossed Birthday

Three Ribbon Challenge Card & A Blog Candy Winner

Based On A Book Blog Hop

PSC #14: Photo-Inspired Sympathy

My First Scrapbook Layout!

Snow Days Blog Hop Winner

Snow Days Blog Hop - Day 2

Snow Days Blog Hop - Day 1

Design Team Call!

PSC #13: Valentine with Vellum

And the winners are...

A Toast To Life Blog Hop

Out With The Old and In With The New Blog Hop - Day 2

Out With The Old and In With The New Blog Hop - Day 1

Merry Christmas & Exciting News!

Gift-Wrapped Envelopes

**Sponsor Call!**

Photo Inspiration by Perfect Sentiments

'Happy Birthday' Snowflake Card

Perfect Sentiments Challenge Entry

Ornament Challenge & My First Digi Stamp Card!

Warm Up With A Book!

Easy As 1, 2, 3! Challenge Card

Sparkly Snowflake Ornaments

Education Cards & A Blog Candy Winner

Give Thanks Blog Hop - Day 2

Give Thanks Blog Hop - Day 1

Exploding Box

Epilepsy Awareness Blog Hop Winner

16 Rubber Stamps for $5!

Epilepsy Awareness Blog Hop

Tri-Fold Card

PageMap Sketch Challenge

Blue, Green and Pink Challenge

Weekly DT Challenge - PageMap Sketch

Card Swap Creations :)

Card Swap Goodies! :)

My First Easel Card!

**SPONSORS WANTED**

Weekly DT Challenge - Handmade Flowers

Meet the Made Especially For You Design Team!

And The Winner Is...

Becky's Sweet Creations Boy/Girl Blog Hop - Day 2

Becky's Sweet Creations Boy/Girl Blog Hop - Day 1

Red/Orange/Yellow DT Challenge

Cupcakes Galore

Sponsor Call!

SPONSORS WANTED